(from One New Man Bible translated by William Morford)

Sh’lah L’kha

Spies Named

13.1. And the LORD* spoke to Moses saying, 2. “Send men for yourself, so they can spy out the land of Canaan, which I AM giving to the children of Israel. You will send a man from each tribe of their fathers, each one a leader among them.” 3. And Moses by the commandment of the LORD* sent them from the wilderness of Paran, all those men were heads of the children of Israel. 4. And these were their names: of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur;  5. of the tribe of Simeon, Shafat the son of Hori; 6. of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh; 7. of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph; 8. of the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun; 9. of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Rafu; 10. of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi; 11. from the tribe of Joseph, of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi; 12. of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli; 13. of the tribe of Asher, Setur the son of Michael; 14. of the tribe of Naphtali, Nabbi the son of Vofsi; 15. of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi.

Hoshea Renamed Joshua

13:16. These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua. 17. And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go up here in the south, and go up on the mountain 18. and see the land, what it is and the people who live there, whether they are strong or weak, few or many. 19. And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it is good or bad and what cities there are that they live in, whether in tents or in strongholds. 20. And what the land is, whether it is fat or lean, whether or not there is wood in it. And be of good courage and bring of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes.

Spies Go Out

13:21. So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, as men come to Hamat. 22. And they ascended by the south and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of the giants were. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23. And they came to the brook of Eshkol and cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a staff between two men; and they brought of the pomegranates and of the figs. 24. The place was called the brook Eshkol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from there. 25. And after forty days they returned from spying out the land.

Spies Report

13:26. And they went and came to Moses and to Aaron and to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, to the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh, and brought back word to them and to the whole congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. 27. And they told him and said, “We came to the land where you sent us and surely it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28. But the people that live in the land are strong and the cities are walled, very great! And moreover we saw the children of the giant there. 29. Amalek lives in the land of the south and the Hittite, the Jebusite, and the Amorite live in the mountains, and the Canaanites live by the sea and by the Jordan.”

13:30. And Caleb calmed the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it.”

13:31. But the men who went up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” 32. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had spied out for the children of Israel saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that eats up its inhabitants. And all the people that we saw in it were men of great stature. 33. And there we saw the Nefilim, the sons of Anak (Giant), who come of the Nefilim, and we were in our own sight like grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”

Evil Report Wins

14.1. And the whole congregation lifted up their voice and cried, and the people wept that night. 2. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron and the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or we had died in this wilderness! (1 Cor. 10:10) 3. And why has the LORD* brought us to this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? Was it not better for us to return to Egypt?” 4. And they said to one another, “Let us make a captain and let us return to Egypt.”

14:5. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the entire assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. 6. And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of those who spied out the land, tore their clothes, 7. and they spoke to the entire company of the children of Israel saying, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. 8. If the LORD* delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. 9. Only do not rebel against the LORD*, neither fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us: their defense has departed from them and the LORD* is with us. Do not be in awe them!” 10. But the whole congregation ordered to stone them with stones. Then the glory of the LORD* appeared in the Tent of Meeting before all the children of Israel.

14:11. And the LORD* said to Moses, “How long will this people provoke Me? And how long will it be before they believe Me, for all the signs that I have shown among them? 12. I shall strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and will make of you a greater nation even mightier than they.”

Moses Pleads with the LORD*

14:13. And Moses said to the LORD*, “Then the Egyptians will hear it (for You brought up this people in Your might from among them) 14. and they will tell the inhabitants of this land, for they have heard that You, LORD*, are among this people, that You, LORD*, are seen face to face and Your cloud stands over them, and You go before them, by daytime in a pillar of cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. 15. Now if You will kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard Your fame will speak saying, 16. ‘Because the LORD* was not able to bring this people into the land which He swore to them, therefore He has slain them in the wilderness.’ 17. And now, I beseech you, let the power of my Lord be great, according as You have spoken saying, 18. ‘The LORD* is patient and of great loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation.’ (Exod. 34:6,7) 19. Pardon, I beseech you, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your loving kindness, and as You have forgiven this people from Egypt even until now.”

The LORD* Pardons

14:20. And the LORD* said, “I have pardoned according to your word. 21. But as truly as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD*. 22. Because all those men who have seen My glory and My miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and have tested Me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to My voice. (Heb. 3:8) 23. Surely they will not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither will any of them who provoked Me see it, 24. except My servant Caleb because he had another spirit with him and has followed Me fully, I shall bring him into the land where he went and his seed will possess it. 25. (Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwelled in the valley.) Tomorrow turn and go into the wilderness by the way of the Reed Sea.”

Israel Sentenced to Forty Years in the Wilderness

14:26. And the LORD* spoke to Moses and to Aaron saying, 27. “How long will I bear with this evil congregation that murmurs against Me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against Me. 28. Say to them, ‘As truly as I live, says the LORD*, as you have spoken in My ears, so will I do for you: 29. your carcasses will fall in this wilderness and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, that have murmured against Me. (Jude 5) 30. Doubtless you will not come into the land, which I swore to make you dwell in, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. 31. But your little ones that you said should be a prey, those I shall bring in and they will know the land which you have despised. 32. But as for you, your carcasses will fall in this wilderness. 33. And your children will wander in the wilderness forty years and bear your backslidings, until your carcasses are wasted in the wilderness. 34. After the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, each day for a year, you will bear your iniquities, forty years, and you will know My enmity.’ 35. I AM,the LORD*, I have said, ‘I shall surely do it to all this evil congregation that are gathered together against Me, they will be consumed in this wilderness and there they will die.’”

14:36. And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made the whole congregation to murmur against him by bringing up a slander upon the land, 37. even those men who brought the evil report on the land, died by the plague before the LORD*. 38. Except Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh still lived, who were of the men that went to spy out the land.

14:39. And Moses told these sayings to all the children of Israel and the people mourned greatly. 40. And they rose up early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain saying, “Here we are and we will go up to the place which the LORD* has promised, for we have sinned.”

14:41. And Moses said, “Why do you now trespass the commandment of the LORD*? But it will not succeed. 42. Do not go up so you are not smitten before your enemies, for the LORD* is not among you. 43. For the Amalekite and the Canaanite are there before you, and you will fall by the sword because you turned away from the LORD*, therefore the LORD* will not be with you.” 44. But they presumed to go up to the hilltop, nevertheless the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD* and Moses did not leave the camp. 45. Then the Amalekite and the Canaanite who lived on that hill came down and struck them, and crushed them to Harmah.

Offerings in the Land

15.1. And the LORD* spoke to Moses saying, 2. “Speak to the children of Israel and say to them,

“When you come into the land of your homes, which I AM giving to you,

3. and will make an offering by fire to the LORD*, a burnt offering or a sacrifice in performing a vow or in a freewill offering or in your solemn feasts, to make a sweet savor to the LORD* of the herd or of the flock, 4. then he that brings his offering to the LORD* will bring a grain offering of two tenths of an ephah of flour mixed with the fourth of a hin of oil. 5. And you will prepare the fourth of a hin of wine for a drink offering with the burnt offering or sacrifice, for one lamb. 6. Or for a ram, you will prepare a grain offering two tenth parts of flour mixed with the third of a hin of oil. 7. And for a drink offering you will offer the third of a hin of wine, a sweet savor to the LORD*. 8. And when you prepare a bull, a burnt offering or a sacrifice in performing a vow or peace offerings to the LORD*, 9. then he will bring with a bull a grain offering of three tenths of an Ephah of flour mixed with half a hin of oil.

10. And you will bring for a drink offering half a hin of wine, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor to the LORD*. 11. Thus it will be done for one bull or for one ram or for a lamb or a kid. 12. According to the number that you will prepare, so will you do for everyone according to their number. 13. All that are born of the country will do these things after this manner, in drawing near with an offering made by fire, a sweet savor to the LORD*. 14. And if a stranger lives with you or whoever is among you in your generations, and will make a fire offering of a sweet savor to the LORD*, as you do, so will he do. 15. One ordinance will be both for you of the congregation and also for the stranger that lives among you, an ordinance forever in your generations: as you are, so will the stranger be before the LORD*. 16. One Torah and one manner will be for you and for the stranger who lives with you.”

15:17. And the LORD* spoke to Moses saying, 18. “Speak to the children of Israel and say to them,

“When you come into the land where I bring you, 19. then it will be, that when you eat of the bread of the land you will offer up a heave offering to the LORD*.

20. You will offer up a cake of the first of your dough for a heave offering. As you do the heave offering of the threshing floor, so will you heave it. 21. Of the first of your dough you will give a heave offering to the LORD* in your generations.

15:22. “And if you have erred and not observed all these commandments, which the LORD* has spoken to Moses, 23. all that the LORD* has commanded you by the hand of Moses, from the day forward that the LORD* commanded him among your generations, 24. then it will be, if anything has been committed by ignorance without the knowledge of the congregation, that the entire congregation will offer one young bull for a burnt offering for a sweet savor to the LORD*, with his grain offering and his drink offering, according to the manner and one he goat for a sin offering. 25. And the priest will make atonement for the entire congregation of the children of Israel, and it will be forgiven them, for it is ignorance and they will bring their offering,  a fire offering to the LORD* and their sin offering before the LORD*, for their ignorance, 26. and it will be forgiven the whole congregation of the children of Israel and the stranger who lives among them, seeing all the people were in ignorance.

15:27. “And if any person sins by mistake then he will bring a she goat of the first year for a sin offering. 28. And the priest will make atonement for the one who sins ignorantly when he sins by mistake before the LORD*, to make atonement for him, and it will be forgiven him. 29. You will have one Torah for him who sins through ignorance, both him who is born among the children of Israel and the stranger who lives among them. 30. But the person that does anything with a high hand, whether he is born in the land or a stranger, he blasphemes the LORD*, and that one will be cut off from among his people. 31. Because he has despised the Word of the LORD* and has broken His commandment, that person will be utterly cut off: his iniquity will be upon him.”

Working on the Sabbath

15:32. And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath. 33. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to the whole congregation. 34. And they put him in custody because it was not declared what should be done to him. 35. And the LORD* said to Moses, “The man will surely be put to death. The whole congregation will stone him with stones outside the camp.” 36. And the whole congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones and he died, as the LORD* commanded Moses.

Prayer Shawl (Sh’ma, Part 3)

15:37. And the LORD* spoke to Moses saying, 38. “Speak to the children of Israel and bid them to make fringes for themselves in the wings of their garments throughout their generations and that they put upon the fringe of the border a thread of blue, 39. and it will be to you for a fringe, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the LORD* and do them, and that you do not seek after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you used to go astray, 40. so you will remember and do all My commandments and be holy to your God. 41. IAM the LORD* your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I AM the LORD* your God.”

Next week’s Torah readings: Korah

(from One New Man Bible translated by William Morford)